NHS South Yorkshire leaders recently met with colleagues from Doncaster’s voluntary sector to hear about their work and to discuss how they can work more closely to collaborate on prevention and tackle health inequalities.
This meeting was the third in a series of meetings arranged by the South Yorkshire Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises (VCSE) Alliance. The first meeting was held in Sheffield and the second in Rotherham.
Gavin Boyle, Chief Executive Officer and Lee Outhwaite, Chief Finance Officer, visited darts, Doncaster’s creative health charity which is the largest participatory arts organisation in the UK, at their home The Point.
Lucy Robertshaw, Director at darts, Doncaster Community Arts and her team gave a presentation on their work including a day in the life of darts. She also gave a deeper insight into their work on Breathe and Connect, in partnership with Doncaster and Bassetlaw NHS Foundation Trust, a project to support adults with breathing pattern disorder and Tuneful Chatter which is a project supporting children with school readiness for the best start in life.
Lucy Robertshaw, Director at darts, Doncaster Community Arts said: ““We were delighted to host this event with NHS South Yorkshire so they could hear about our work to inspire and develop the role of arts and creativity in public service and how we deliver projects that respond directly to Doncaster’s health and educational inequalities.
“Having the event take place at dart’s home, The Point, enabled our partners to see our purpose built inclusive arts centre and see first-hand how we create art with Doncaster people to improve life, learning and health. darts make high-quality, inclusive, creative experiences across Doncaster and our programmes are open to everyone, particularly those who have the least access to the arts.”
There was a breadth of VCSE organisations at the meeting including: darts; SCCCC; Mind; Growing Together; Refurnish; Live Inclusive; Charity Hub; Citizens Advice; People Focussed Group; Edlington Hilltop Centre; Club Doncaster; Friends of Clay Lane; Changing Lives; and Mindful Activities. The roundtable session was chaired by Vanessa Powell-Hoyland, Public Health Lead at Doncaster Council.
Discussion was wide ranging offering insights on the work of the groups present including how they are already connecting with our communities, tackling health inequalities and undertaking work with both improves patients experiences and outcomes and reduces health system pressures.
Gavin Boyle, Chief Executive Officer of NHS South Yorkshire said: “It was great to visit Darts and to meet some of our wider Doncaster VCSE colleagues last week. It was a pleasure to listen to the important work they are doing in their communities to help people. I was impressed by the examples from the many organisations present. It was clear to me that there is an amazing opportunity for us to work more closely together to improve the health and wellbeing of local people. There are definitely things the ICB can do to help our relationship flourish. It was clear to me what an important role the VCSE sector plays in the wider health and care partnership.”
The session was organised by Karen Smith VCSE Programme Director and Amy Turner Project Co-ordinator at NHS South Yorkshire on behalf of the VCSE Alliance which aims to strengthen partnership working and collaboration across the health and care system.
The photo shows delegates in the exhibition space at The Point featuring The River Don is Amazing.